Sponsored themes suck

Earlier I estimated that 25-30% might be “infected” with sponsors links on the WP Theme Viewer. Well, I was wrong.

According to Matt’s post on his blog, almost 60 percent of the themes needed to be removed because of the sponsored links. They removed 2,107 themes so far out of the 3949 (this number was shown by the counter on that site when I checked it last time). I had a bad feeling about that almost 4,000 number but I didn’t dare to estimate the garbage rate as high…

I wouldn’t like to go into the quality vs. sponsor-free controversy. Judging the quality and the usability of a theme is very much subjective, although the popularity of it might be a sign of something…

Oh, and seemingly I was wrong also about the feasibility of this “removal project” before the upcoming WordCamp.

In the topic of the WP Forum that started this blog there has been a new reply this morning about a theme found somewhere on the net. And this is the important bit: not on the Theme Viewer at themes.wordpress.net but somewhere else. So I had to make a clarification over there which says:

Just to make it clear: I am not against sponsored themes because I think they are the worst thing in the (free) world.
I am against them on any WP related site - like the themes.wordpress.net! A site related to this software and where we are sending new users daily… should be trustworthy and free of crap.

On the other hand, everybody is entitled to host their own theme, be it sponsored or not, and to offer for download. Just don’t want them hosted here.

Now encrypted code might be not compatible with WordPress’ GNU GPL license - but I am not a legal expert so I’ll leave it for others.

And a final note: sponsored or not, encrypted ot not - this is NOT your theme, regardless of the renaming. The copyright applies even for the bad guys

This is what I was saying from the beginning: host your own sponsored themes wherever you want, preferably with a disclosure so people know what are they going to download, just don’t expect to be hosted for free on a WP related site.

First, the famous WLTC (Weblogtoolscollection), which provides up to date info about WP themes and plugins announced they would ban the sponsored themes: No Sponsored themes on WeblogToolsCollection. The majority of the comments is very much in favour, although some bloggers (sponsored designers?) still argue and try to compare apples and ornages. To make this clear: I can have ads (of sponsors) on my own site, on my own blog… if you don’t like it, you will not visit it. But putting obfuscated code in a theme that was released to the public “for free” is unethical. Especially considering that the majority of the bloggers who use free themes hosted at the Theme Viewer are mainly novice users who have no idea how to remove the sponsor link.

Then Matt, the head of WP said in his blog that “Before WordCamp all sponsored themes should be removed from themes.wordpress.net.” I guess I should know when the WordCamp will be in San Francisco but I don’t. Ok, it’s on July 21-22, 2007… and that’s only a few days from now. There are 3949 themes in the Theme Viewer and my “educated guess” is that about 25-30% (at least) are problematic themes. Who could check and remove all those? (You can get the job if you apply! - see the site)
Actually, there was a follow-up post today (yesterday?) about the web-echo of Matt’s decision. Lots of love and hate. And controversy, which seems to be endless…

It all started here, in the WordPress Forums. There was this thread about the really revolting disgusting method of hiding the “sponsors” code in a theme’s footer. You can read the technical details there…

I started to like the thread when syncbox said

I’m for public flogging, too. I think it would break the back of crime in a hurry. Send them to jail? Why support the lazy arses of criminals, I say… put’em in stocks and let people throw rotten vegetables at them. At the very least, it helps global warming by composting!

Not everything about the middle ages was bad

That’s very much how I feel, too. (Never understood the Canadian Youth Criminal Justice Act, which provides anonimity for felons… - but this would go too far).

So, when in the next post came up the question who owns sponsored-themes-suck.com ? (by whooami)- I just went and registered it in a minute :). I have a hosting package where I had room for one more domain, so quickly installed there a blog.

And because lately in several threads related to themes Root’s name has been mentioned frequently, I decided to use one of his famous early templates, the Vesuvius. It’s “nothing fancy” - just a robust 3 column layout that works well in every browser.

If you want to know more about the whole issue of the sponsored themes, you can go and read the long-long discussion on the WordPress site.

We all hate sponsored themes. They became worse and worse lately: adding obfuscated code to hide their garbage from the unsuspectinig users.

There are rumors that sponsored themes will not be allowed anymore on the WP themes repository. Let’s hope.

If you don’t like them either and you also think that “public flogging works” - join us. Register and write a post about such a theme with its name, author etc. No link necessary.